U.S. Attorney General Stresses Continued FCPA Enforcement

Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington.
Photo:
Associated Press

The U.S. attorney general stressed Monday that prosecutors won’t relent in their pursuit of foreign-bribery cases.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at a corporate compliance conference in Washington, D.C., that the Justice Department will continue to strongly enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-corruption laws, enabling “an even playing field” for law-abiding companies.

“Companies should succeed because they provide superior products and services, not because they have paid off the right people,” he said, according to prepared remarks.

Mr. Sessions’ remarks come a week after two speeches by a department official who also stressed that the U.S. will stay on course with its FCPA enforcement. The corporate compliance community had raised questions about the future of anti-bribery enforcement in the wake of President Donald Trump‘s election; he had historically called the FCPA a “horrible law,” and he picked critics of the law to key positions.

However, Mr. Sessions said the Justice Department, under his leadership, will continue the emphasis on holding individuals accountable for corporate misconduct, and that the department is increasingly seeking global resolutions that divide penalties among the jurisdictions. When companies accept responsibility for their prior misconduct, he said, this ensures “they are not unfairly penalized” by multiple governments.

Mr. Sessions also said prosecutors will continue to consider a company’s compliance program, their level of cooperation, self-disclosure and amount of remediation when making charging decisions.

“These principles will still guide our prosecutorial discretion determinations, because they further our ultimate goal, which is for people to comply with the law,” he said.

Write to Samuel Rubenfeld at Samuel.Rubenfeld@wsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @srubenfeld.

Content from our sponsorDeloitteRisk management, strategy and analysis from Deloitte

Despite second-half 2017 disaster claims from hurricanes and wildfires, U.S. property-catastrophe insurers appear to be cautiously optimistic at the start of 2018. And while life insurance and annuities face the potential impact of new fiduciary standards on the sale of retirement-related products set by the U.S. Department of Labor, many have made substantial changes in their business model to accommodate the anticipated regulations. Gary Shaw, vice chairman and U.S. insurance leader, Deloitte & Touche LLP, and Jim Eckenrode, managing director, Center for Financial Services, Deloitte Services LP, discuss how M&A, digitalization and other trends may influence the insurance industry as 2018 unfolds.

Please note: The Wall Street Journal News Department was not involved in the creation of the content above.More from Deloitte →